Topics publications: African regional integration
Trade Reports
The AfCFTA design will determine how it will function and evolve
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is anchored in legal instruments concluded by sovereign states. For trade in goods the AfCFTA establishes, through its Protocol on Trade in Goods, a new Free Trade Area (FTA), not a Customs Union (CU). All 55 African Union (AU) Member States are expected to become AfCFTA State Parties, after they have ratified the AfCFTA Agreement or have acceded to it. Forty-four have already done so.
A pilot AfCFTA project, the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), was launched in October 2022. Eight African States have signed up for this initiative, which allows for preferential trade in a limited number of products. However, this is not yet what the AfCFTA envisages. The Guided Trade Initiative is an interim trial run. It would be much better if the whole scheme of things is put in place in order for the benefits.
This Trade Report discusses the process in terms of which the outstanding tariff schedules and RoO of the AfCFTA are being negotiated and how this arrangement can be expected to function. Where necessary, provisions in the AfCFTA Protocol on Trade in Goods and its Annexes will be mentioned.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.
Trade Reports
How the AfCFTA began and evolved
African economic integration has a long history, but 10 years ago the African Union (AU) Assembly adopted a decision that put matters on a new course. This decision dealt with boosting intra-African trade and fast tracking the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), as it was then called.
When announced, the strategy for a continental trade arrangement contained little in terms of technical detail but chose to align existing African trade arrangements (the Regional Economic Community (REC) Free Trade Areas (FTAs)) with a new African continental trade regime. The fact that the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) was singled out as the first milestone event for a continental trade deal, is notable. Looking back, the TFTA made a significant contribution in terms of the principles on which the subsequent AfCFTA was built. The recognition that the REC FTAs would continue with the implementation of their own integration agendas and that other intra-African regional integration initiatives should be supported, was a deliberate and important choice. The 2012 AU Assembly decision laid the foundation for subsequent African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) deliberations and outcomes.
In June 2015, the AU Assembly met in Johannesburg and adopted the Declaration on the launch of the AfCFTA negotiations. It again emphasised the importance of building the CFTA on existing regional Free Trade Areas and congratulated the COMESA, EAC and SADC Member/Partner States on launching the TFTA in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt in June 2015. It called this event “a great achievement towards continental integration to be emulated by other regions.” This Trade Report discusses the TFTA and the impact it has on the AfCFTA negotiations in Africa’s quest for greater continental integration.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.
Trade Briefs
Profiling the African Agricultural Value Chain: Basic and Gender Dimensions
The AfCFTA Secretariat, in a recent report entitled The Futures Report 2021: Which Value Chains for a Made in Africa Revolution, identified certain industrial sectors and sub-sectors as potential candidates for value chain development under the AfCFTA agreement. The broad sectors included in their list were agricultural/agro-processing, textiles and leather, automotive, pharmaceuticals, mobile financial services and cultural industries.
This Trade Brief looks at the broadly-defined agricultural/agro-processing/agri-business sector in Africa, from the perspective of the regional and global value chain dimensions. The intention is to present the basic value chain metrics of the sector, including gender-disaggregated employment metrics, as a precursor to several more extensive studies forthcoming from tralac over the next few months.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.
Trade Briefs
Profiling the African Clothing, Textile & Leather Value Chain: Basic and Gender Dimensions
The AfCFTA Secretariat, in a recent report entitled The Futures Report 2021: Which Value Chains for a Made in Africa Revolution, identified certain industrial sectors and sub-sectors as potential candidates for value chain development under the AfCFTA agreement. The broad sectors included in their list were agricultural/agro-processing, textiles and leather, automotive, pharmaceuticals, mobile financial services and cultural industries.
This Trade Brief looks at the clothing, textile & leather sector (CT&L) in Africa, from the perspective of the regional and global value chain dimensions. The intention is to present the basic value chain metrics of the sector, including gender-disaggregated employment metrics, as a precursor to several more extensive studies forthcoming from tralac over the next few months.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.
Trade Briefs
Why legal Certainty and Remedies matter for African Trade and Integration
Uncertainty is the enemy of endeavours to promote effective regional integration and trade. Business enterprises must can count on predictable outcomes when making investments and pursuing commercial ventures within national jurisdictions and across state borders. The ability of the private sector to deal with risk factors requires, amongst other things, reliable legal environments. This includes transparent laws and regulations and the availability of legal remedies when rights are infringed or threatened. These should exist at national, regional, and continental levels, especially now that the first steps are being taken to start trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). As has often been observed of the AfCFTA; it has tremendous potential for boosting intra-African trade “if properly implemented”. Ultimately, regional integration efforts should be underpinned by inter-state arrangements consisting of appropriate and enabling legal frameworks.
Effective and legitimate dispute resolution mechanisms should also be part and parcel of regional integration efforts. When differences arise about whether the right procedures have been followed or obligations in trade agreements have been respected by officials operating at borders or within national jurisdictions, they should be resolved through the objective and impartial application of mutually agreed norms. The parties to such disputes must accept the results of adjudication or other dispute settlement processes as fair, final, and binding. These basic practices are an integral part of good governance and the rule of law.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of tralac.
Trade Reports
The SADC Trade Facilitation Agenda: Lessons for the African Continental Free Trade Area
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) defines trade facilitation as “the simplification, modernisation and harmonisation of export and import processes.” In spite of the liberalisation of trade in various trade rounds, reduction in the cost of transportation and increased use of information and communication technologies, significant barriers related to the streamlining and coordination of trade procedures have remained especially in least developed and developing countries.
In Africa, the inspiration for the trade facilitation provisions in the various regional economic communities (RECs), including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), can be traced to the Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos (1980), the Abuja Treaty (1992) and the Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000). Furthermore, these are the antecedents of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which was adopted in Kigali, Rwanda on 21st March 2018.
The provisions in the AfCFTA Agreement and SADC Protocol on Trade related to trade facilitation instruments are consistent with provisions in other international agreements (such as the WTO TFA) and customs conventions (such as the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention). This means that lessons learned from implementation of these instruments at the regional and international level are relevant for implementation of the AfCFTA. Challenges to implementation of trade facilitation measures in Africa include non-uniform ratification of international conventions and agreements. Secondly, even when ratified, implementation of the conventions and agreements is not carried out systematically and uniformly at the national and regional level. Thirdly, NTBs have been persistent in spite of the provisions in treaties that once they have come into force, contracting parties are to refrain from applying existing NTBs, and not introduce new ones. The EAC-COMESA-SADC Tripartite mechanism for NTB resolution holds promise not only for SADC, but the AfCFTA as well. These measures require high level political will and commitment for implementation, and the participation of the private sector at all levels.
Readers are encouraged to quote and reproduce this material for educational, non-profit purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. All views and opinions expressed remain solely those of the author and do not purport to reflect the views of